My latest short story is now available in issue 123 of Apex Magazine! It will be free to read on June 1, but the full issue is only $4.99 if you can't bear to wait. It's called "All This Darkness," from the Bruce Springsteen song "Land of Hope and Dreams."
It isn't about Bruce Springsteen, though, and it isn't a New Jersey story. It's inspired by Shamokin, Pennsylvania, where my grandparents come from. It was a coal mining town, until the mines closed, and so my story is about the generation of kids that thought they would graduate high school (or not) and go to work in the mines, like their parents before them. Until the mines closed. And then they went into the mountain anyway.
I do hope you'll give it a read, and enjoy! They also interviewed me, which was really fun and interesting.
Edited to add: Here is the direct link to my story: https://apex-magazine.com/all-this-darkness/
